Well, out of all the positions on the ballot and all 5 questions on my ballot, with the exception of one unopposed candidate that I voted for, no race went the way I voted for it.
“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” — Romans 13:1 (NIV)
Don’t you have a hard time swallowing that verse? That never sat quite right.
I’ll certainly agree it’s not always easy to understand. It’s hard to understand why God lets things happen that obviously seem bad. (And while I don’t agree with much of the leadership in this town/state/country, here is much better than some other places in the world, where it’s much harder to see how the verse applies.)
Certainly, in some sense, nothing happens without God’s consent, in that if God didn’t want something to happen then He could make it not happen. But God has also consented to let us have free will.
If you continue to read the passage in Romans, a large part is about how God uses the rulers of the day to bring wrongdoers to justice.
God can use many things, even Bad People or Corrupt Government, to further His purposes. (See also Romans 8:28 for a broader statement.) In fact, to a large extent the stories in the Bible are about good things happening despite people’s flaws, because God has a plan bigger than them all.
I don’t know what God has in store for us. I don’t know how these election results are better than what I voted for. But luckily for us, He does.
The free will argument means that the results don’t have to necessarily be better. The only comforting take-home message is that God can still impact our lives despite free will.
(Although people, on average, still seem to suffer injustice in proportion to their circumstances rather than some plan. I guess things like Calvinism were invented to resolve that paradox.)
I suppose that is largely the point that I was making: God impacts us despite our free will, and even uses things that seem bad (or are bad) for a longer-term good goal.
To more directly answer your original question though, it is definitely hard to swallow sometimes. I suppose I thought “writing it down” in some sense could help me to do so.
Thanks. I haven’t intended my proddings as a challenge, and I value your responses.
You don’t suppose every bad thing is for a longer-term good goal, do you? I mean, I realize everything ultimately affects everything, but you don’t want to ascribe too much actual meaning to the butterfly theory of chaos…